Ollie’s Angels Animal Welfare Society received a special donation from the students at Oak Hills Elementary School during their morning assembly on Tuesday.
Tara Bennett, CEO and co-founder of Ollie’s Angels, and Gina Murphy, president and co-founder of the organization, and Foxy the dog were all in attendance to accept the $2,500 cash donation with smiles on their faces.
Murphy said that Kimberly Notch, a counselor at the school, was a big asset to making the fundraiser a success and made sure the students were involved every step of the way during their Kindness Week.
Bennett said that the children were putting donations in boxes every day during the week, with Bennett and Murphy visiting the students with dogs like Foxy and Hank as a special treat on Tuesday and Friday.
Ollie’s Angels is a nonprofit organization “supporting rescue groups and empowering pet guardians through education, outreach and hands-on resources. Our purpose is to help strengthen the rescue community and provide pet owners with the tools they need to care for their animals responsibly,” according to the website.
Bennett said having the students vote for the organization to donate money to was validating to see.
“It’s just incredible. It’s heartwarming and it’s very validating. It just helps us too; it reaffirms that we are making a difference in the community. And that was our whole intention, was to really be very community-driven and help educate. That’s a huge part of what our organization does,” Bennett said.
Murphy added that the organization helps raise awareness for the cause and helps out people who want to adopt a dog.
“Our mission with all these angels is when a dog gets adopted, we want them to stay adopted. So, we’re wanting to kind of think outside the box and give them the tools, whether it’s training, or whether it’s maybe a little bit of help with medical (bills) or finding some resources so that maybe, like, vet care isn’t as expensive,” Murphy said.
Jarrod Henry, principal at Oak Hills Elementary, said the fundraiser exceeded the staff and his expectations, surpassing their internal goal of $1,000. “So to make 2.5 times that was pretty impressive. We were all kind of blown away by that,” Henry said.
